diff --git a/tools/extracttests.py b/tools/extracttests.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 2a7be3385..cafdce43b
--- a/tools/extracttests.py
+++ b/tools/extracttests.py
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ class Extract:
 def strtoxml(s):
     return s.replace('&','&amp;').replace('"', '&quot;').replace('<','&lt;').replace('>','&gt;')
 
+if len(sys.argv) == 1 or '--help' in sys.argv:
+    print 'Extract test cases from test file'
+    print 'Syntax: extracttests.py [--html=folder] [--xml] path/testfile.cpp'
+
 # parse command line
 xml = False
 filename = None